Project Details

Giraffe

South Africa’s unemployment rate just hit a 12-year high, increasing from 24.5% in 2015 to 26.7% this year. Shafin Anwarsha, founder of a South African recruitment app called Giraffe, believes that the main problem is lack of access. He says that, “jobseekers often live in townships that are segregated from cities, public transport is poor and expensive and there is limited internet access.”

Giraffe aims to reduce unemployment by providing a free recruitment app which helps employers hire medium-skilled workers faster and more easily. Businesses can submit their staff requirements online, and jobseekers can create a simple CV using their mobile phone. Giraffe’s algorithm then identifies the most suitable candidates, who have been screened and ID-checked. The platform then automatically schedules interviews, informing candidates by text message.

The process is completely free for jobseekers, who do not need a smartphone to use Giraffe – just a mobile phone with internet access. Crucially, jobseekers do not have to spend any money on data, thanks to Giraffe’s partnership with Vodacom – South Africa’s largest mobile operator.

Since its launch in early 2015, Giraffe has attracted over 150,000 jobseekers, invited over 30,000 of them for interviews, and helped hundreds of businesses recruit medium-skilled workers faster and cheaper than any other way, sometimes within 48 hours. Thousands of candidates have been placed in permanent roles in retail, admin, sales, transport and hospitality.

Following a collaboration with Facebook’s Free Basics programme and a $500,000 fund led by the Omidyar Network this year, Giraffe has been able to expand to Cape Town and Durban. Anwarsha says the company is targeting 260,000 jobseeker placements by 2019, and hopes to expand further across Africa. Find out more at www.giraffe.co.za

Image courtesy of Joel Goldstein

Last updated: 10th of August, 2016

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